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Posted by Toe on 13:41:18 06/01/14
I know, why didn't I wait till June 1st for the June Challenge. But, today was just not possible and I was anxious to get out on the old boat. The new boat is almost done, but not quite yet. Joining me were Paul "Like Is Good" Bithorn, Angel & Mariel "Nature Is Awesome" Abreu, and Joe "need a nickname" Barros. We encountered just 1 Brown Boody on Fowey and some overly optimistic divers expecting to find legal-sized fish in 15' of water. What were they going to spear, Sargeant Majors?
There was dark, green water out to 150', then deep blue water with smoking north current. These are usually ideal conditions for weedlines and shearwaters, but not on this day. The sargassum weed was pushed close to shore and out on the stream it was non-existent. We ran out to the swordfish grounds 15 miles offshore and never found any concentration of birds other that the some small flocks of feeding terns and boobies, with a couple of Audubon's Shearwaters. The most common bird of the day was Bridled Tern. An all-white tern was likely an Arctic, but we didn't get close enough to confirm. Conditions were ideal, albeit a bit hot, the boat ran good, and we still put together a nice list. Hopefully these trips will be more regular once the XENIA V is completed. Thanks to the gang for joining me.
The day's list:
Cory's Shearwater 1
Audubon's Shearwater 4
Band-rumped Storm-Petrel 1
Brown Booby 32
Northern Gannet 1, juvenile heading north as expected
Brown Noddy 1
Sooty Tern 6
Bridled Tern 70
Arctic Tern, possible 1
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